I know - big surprise. But this lie really annoyed me.
Barack Obama, at one point, interrupted Jim Lehrer and asked Lehrer to move on to a new topic. It was a brilliant metaphor for what Barack Obama did coming into office. He looked at the economy and decided to move on to Obamacare. His whole career has been one of passing the buck, shifting blame, and failing to take responsibility for tough challenges. He did the same last night.
But what Obama really said was
this: "Jim, I -- you may want to move onto another topic, but I -- I would just say this to the American people."
Moreover - if you go back just a bit earlier in the debate, you can see that Lehrer had been trying to move the conversation himself, before allowing Romeny to plow on through:
LEHRER: It's OK, it's great. No problem. Well, you all don't have -- you don't have a problem, I don't have a problem, because we're still on the economy. We're going to come back to taxes. I want move on to the deficit and a lot of other things, too.
OK, but go ahead, sir.
So - let me get this straight - Romney muscles on despite Lehrer's (weak) attempt to reign things in. Given a chance - Obama politely tries to offer Lehrer the opportunity to change topics (hince, the pauses). And Erickson describes the whole exchange as - GASP! - rudeness on Obama's part?
Here's hoping that we see less of this polite Obamanext time around!